I call us to Indianapolis to consider possible futures for our work in the context of these broader movements toward greater participation that open has come to signify—in the academy, in government, in scholarship, in society. I invite us to consider the ways in which these notions collide in our everyday work and in the gifts we have to give the academy. I also call us to question and intervene in the facile ways in which the term is attached to market-driven ideas about scholarship and curriculum building in an era of dramatically changing labor conditions for faculty across all levels and types of institutions.

Composition and Communication, separately and together, have long modeled and struggled through these same yearnings that now operate as touchstone values in this digital age. To say it differently, our disciplinary history has brought us to a place where we have a chance to both transform the academy and be transformed by reexamining our commitments, priorities, and relationships. I further believe a synthesis of our history, combined with the creative resistance sometimes at work in Open Access scholarship, Open Source philosophy and politics with the demands for a new vision for higher education fostered in departments like Women’s and Gender Studies, LBGTQ Studies, Africana, Latin@, Indigenous and Labor Studies, and by the students, faculty and staff who have literally opened up the academy in the last 50 years can lead us to a time for futuristic visions. Bold reimaginings. Creative redesigns for a field that can be central to remaking higher education in the service of deep democracy. Learn More Here!

Adam BanksUniversity of Kentucky, Lexington2014 Program Chair

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